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♪♪ a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome to alex witt reports. we're beginning with the breaking news, a tsunami

advisory currently in effect for the entire pacific coast as well as alaska. it comes after an underwater volcano erupted early this morning off the coast of tonga in the pacific ocean. you can see here that nation's largest island was hit by some pretty big waves. just last hour, though, hawaii ended their tsunami advisory. no major damage or injuries being reported at this hour, only some minor flooding. let's go right to nbc's guad venegas. i'm going to be honest and tell you i got an email from a friend from new port beach saying they were alarmed about it and wanted to know what the latest was. >> reporter: right, so, a lot of people saw the alerts. they've been seeing posts on social media talking about the tsunami. a lot of the images that we've seen that we were just showing come from tonga. this is where they did have a tsunami, the water flooding the capital. a lot of people had to flee to higher ground but here on the west coast, we have the alert. most of the images have been coming out of santa cruz, where

the harbor has seen some flooding. for now, what they have said is we can expect across the west coast, one to two-foot waves that could cause some flooding. also stronger currents, so that's why they are advising people to stay away from the shore and obviously stay out of the water. also people on boats have been asked to move to land. this is all across the west coast. this alert, of course, in california, oregon, and washington, and going up into parts of canada. once again, most of the reports of flooding that we have seen so far are happening at the santa cruz harbor here in northern california. the rest of california beaches, san diego county, orange county, l.a. county, for now, only on alert. again, they expect one to two-foot waves. we did receive a first wave of waves earlier, but the alert does mention that a second wave or the waves coming after could be larger. >> so, is there an expectation for when anything could be

lifted as they have done in the hawaiian islands, the tsunami alert? because you may have heard michelle grossman, our nbc meteorologist, saying that these waves travel across the ocean, sometimes at the speed of a jet liner, which was remarkable to think about. so, soon, it should be hitting the pacific coast. >> reporter: right, so, what we know for now is that the advisory was issued, and that, you know, the whole west coast, that's all we know. some of the beaches have been closed down, and you know, it's important to understand, even if you're not an expert at understanding how these things work, but when it comes to the ocean, for some of the people that live on, like, on the beach, they live in these towns, they understand the force of the ocean, so when you're talking about one to two-foot waves in areas that normally might not have the waves, the power of the ocean can be very dangerous, so for now, the alert or the advisory is for people to just stay away from the shores, stay away from the water until this advisory is removed from the west coast.

>> okay. very good advice, guad venegas, thank you for the update. more breaking news to share with you on that major winter storm that could cripple travel from the mississippi valley and in fact all the way into the northeast for this holiday weekend. parts of the midwest are right now digging out after the storm buried parts of iowa, north dakota, and minnesota yesterday. now as the storm is heading southeast, 66 million people are under some sort of a winter weather advisory. we've got a couple reports on this major storm for you. nbc's sam brock is joining us from nashville. once again, nbc news meteorologist michelle grossman will give us the forecast. let's go to sam in tennessee and that's one of the states in line of the storm so what are preparations like there, sam? >> reporter: well, right now, it's kind of business as usual, alex. you're looking at broadway street over my left should, the honky tonks are full, the party buses are out, but yes, this is going to be problematic in the hours ahead. middle tennessee is getting hit now for the third time with a

snowstorm this year. first it was january 3rd, they saw up to 9 inches in some places. three days later, it was another 8 to 9 inches. now in nashville, where i am, they're expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 to 5 inches of snow and 3 to 7 inches throughout the region. the key to all this, alex, and why it could be so problematic is this event where the warning is from 6:00 p.m. tonight until 6:00 p.m. sunday. it comes first with rain so the rain arrives, then there is going to be a mixture of sleet, freezing rain, and snow, but if that rain gets there first, it can freeze and cause considerable travel disruptions. in fact, the national weather service right now said that travel could be very difficult to impossible. they're pleading with people not to get out there on the roadways and try to get somewhere that could cause them to be imperilled in the process. certainly, flights are an issue right now as well. charlotte, where the storm then heads next as it pivots up to the midatlantic region is an american airlines hub.

that is going to be an issue. i heard you and michelle talking about grocery stores as well. some of the shelves here are empty as folks are trying to prepare. there's only so much that the tennessee department of transportation can be doing right now ahead of the rain. they have some 500,000 gallons of brine, 43,000 tons of salt, so they are ready to jump into action, but it is the calm before the storm right now, and as you look at that corridor, one other thing i got to mention to you, alex, we know there's a football game you might have heard tonight in buffalo, new york, which is in the northern end of that i-95 corridor. the patriots are playing the bills. when you get there tonight, gametime, 8:00, it's going to be 6 degrees. the quarterback for the bills, josh allen, is not going to be wearing sleeves because he can run more effectively without them in arctic temperatures. that is something right now that all the sports world is kind of keying in to see how that plays out as we have football, we have storms, we have travel disruptions, all coming together right now over the course of this weekend, alex. >> and it's playoffs, so i mean,

people are obviously going to be going to those games and they'll be freezing in the stands, watching a freezing qb doing his thing. interesting. thanks for the heads-up on all that. stay safe and take care there in nashville. let's go to nbc news meteorologist michelle grossman with the forecast on all this. we've been paying attention. what's in store? >> hi there, alex. well, you know, i feel for the people in tennessee. think about december, the historic tornado outbreak and then they have had weekend after weekend of severe storms, snow, more snow than they have had in the past few years, and they're going to get more snow today. so let's show you where the snow is falling right now. we do have some heavy rain, though, too, in some spots. this is what radar looks like and has looked like over the last six hours. where you see the blue, that's where the snow is falling, parts of missouri, into arkansas, into the state of tennessee and also kentucky but mainly heavy rain in tennessee right now where you see that heavy rain is in the yellow and also the orange. now, we do have winter alerts all across the area where you see the white. that's your advisory.

the watch is in blue. the warning's in pink and we have an ice storm warning. that's going to be a big story tomorrow, tonight into tomorrow. 66 million people impacted by these alerts. the only silver lining, i think, is it's a holiday weekend so hopefully a lot of people will be able to clean up and stay home on monday. but this is what the snowfall looks like. we'll start with cold side of the storm. we could see anywhere from 6, 8, 9, up to a foot of snow where you see pink and purple, locally, 20 inches of snow in the mountains of north carolina, in the western part of the state, so a lot of snow in some spots. further to the north, looking at buffalo, it's going to be so cold, like sam mentioned, and we're looking at snow falling through monday, up to a foot in some spots in the state of new york and interior pennsylvania as well. and this is going to be the biggest story as we head to tonight and tomorrow morning. the ice that will be freezing on contact is going to freeze on the tree limbs, bring down branches for sure, and it could even bring down trees, so when that starts to happen, that's where you see the power outages

so in the blue, that's going to be the highest amounts for this ice. in terms of ice storm impacts, it's hard to grasp this concept. when you have a quarter inch of ice which we're expecting in a lot of spots, that's where it gets slick on the roads, the bridges, hazardous travel, not great to travel on and you see the icy glaze forming on the trees. when you go up to a half inch, that's when you see those tree branches come down. really dangerous to travel on. you want to stay home if you have this in your forecast. listen to your local forecast and then up to an inch, this is when it's impossible to travel and those trees come down and alex, that's where you get those extensive power outages that last for days, even weeks, so that's something we're going to be watching for sure. >> yikes. that graphic was pretty dismal you're showing. it looks good but i'm like, a lot can go wrong. thank you so much, michelle grossman. today's other breaking news for you, civil rights leaders taking the fight for new federal voting rights legislation to the doorstep of arizona senator kyrsten sinema. the family of martin luther king jr. leading a rally and march on the birthday of dr. king.

correspondent vaughn hillyard is joining me from phoenix. talk about the main message they're sending to senator sinema. >> reporter: it's one of frustration, alex. i think, to say that you have heard the name kyrsten sinema mentioned here at least 40 times may be an understatement. from the podium at the pre-event and after event, it's the -- the focus has been on kyrsten sinema. and actually, martin luther king iii, his wife, andrea, daughter, yolanda, were here earlier and i had the chance to speak with them and for much of our interview echoed that frustration, particularly directed to the democratic senator here from arizona. >> arizona in one sense is near ground zero. i say near because unfortunately, there are 19 states that have passed regressive laws, including our own state of georgia, and we believe that as it relates to

getting this -- these bills passed, that senator sinema has been one of the challenges, and so it made sense to come to arizona, some regressive laws, we feel, have been put in place that make it harder for people to vote. and yet, every last one of these states that have passed these regressive laws have done it with all republican legislators, not bipartisan. >> reporter: again, this was a march here in which they said that the fight is not over for them. again, these were major pieces of federal voting rights protections that would have been afforded to american voters here and the concern from the likes of the king family, as well as ruben gallego, the congressman from the phoenix area, is the extent to which states further restrict voting rights or make it more difficult to vote in so many of these states. 19 states in this year alone passed measures that restrict individuals' abilities to vote here and the concern is what

happens here in these years ahead here. >> yeah. indeed. big concern. okay, vaughn, thank you for that. well, joining me right now is washington congresswoman pramila jayapal, a democratic member of the house judiciary and budget committee. she is also chair of the progressive caucus. we're always glad to welcome you. before we get to politics, my friend, let me ask you quickly about that tsunami warning, which would affect the coast of your state there in washington. have you gotten any updates? are there concerns about that? >> alex, it's great to see you. yes, we have been following that and tracking that very closely. obviously, haven't heard any, you know, immediate issues that we've seen, but we know that it's hitting the entire coast in different parts, all the way up north to forks and all the way down south to the oregon coast. we're just waiting to see and asking everybody to, you know, make sure they're not at the beach today. this is not a good day to be at the beach. and to make sure that they're on higher ground and, you know, be very careful because we know

this could come in two waves. >> absolutely, as we're looking right now, we were showing them westport, washington, and there's a lot of dense fog as well, so to your point, it is not a day to go to the beach, and it's january. but anyway, let's go and talk about everything with voting rights and the like. there's been, of course, the big, you know, push, the big momentum this last week, but it appears -- and i don't want to sound like negative nelly, but it appears like this legislation is heading for failure, unless something surprising happens. it has zero republican support. senate democrats do not have full party support for changing the rules relative to the filibuster and there's a new quinnipiac university poll that shows a majority of americans are definitely worried about the future of the american democracy. so, congresswoman, when you see numbers like this, does it surprise you there's not more support to shore up voting rights? i mean, do you ever hear your republican colleagues concerned about the state of our democracy? >> well, there are two things that are incredibly frustrating,

i think, to me and to people across the country. and that is that we all know the state, the battered state of our democracy. and we all understand that this is not just a one-off here or two states that are doing this. this is a concerted, planned, coordinated effort. over 400 voter suppression bills have been introduced across the country just in the last year, just since january 6th. and so it's not divorced from january 6th either and i think that's why people are so frustrated because it feels like the urgency is not being recognized. we, of course, in the house, have passed both of these voting rights bills, and we passed them again in sort of a procedural maneuver called the shell bill where we put both the bills together and sent them again to the senate, and that's what they're going to be voting on, on tuesday. the second piece, alex, that i think, you know, i was

walking -- i was out for a walk in my neighborhood yesterday, and i can't tell you how many people stopped me on that walk to talk to me about how frustrated they were that there's this -- no action and this continued emphasis that somehow voting rights needs to be bipartisan. i just want to remind all of your viewers that voting rights has almost never been bipartisan, with the exception of the mid-20th century when there were particular circumstances, but in most of our country's history, voting rights changes for the better have been rammed through by one party because it is a polarizing, unfortunately, it shouldn't be, but it has been polarizing because it is a tool for one party to use to suppress the vote to try to win the election, which then, again, you go back to january 6th, this is another piece of this coordinated attack to try to win elections, not legitimately, but by these different tacks. so i have hope.

i'm going to end with the hope. we have moved a lot of senators who didn't believe in changing the rules at all for the filibuster in the senate who now do support it, and unfortunately, we still have a couple that aren't there, and i just hope that the debate on the senate floor and the push over this weekend shows those remaining senators that this is about which side of history you're going to stand on and the country needs them to stand on the right side of history and pass the john lewis voting rights act and the freedom vote act. >> you know, i have to say, you speak about the history and standing on the right side of it, and in fact, i'm going to put up a tweet that just came from the president, not -- just 20 minutes or so ago, shortly before 2:00 p.m. eastern, in which he says, history has never been kind to those who have sided with voter suppression over voters' rights and it will be even less kind for those who side with election subversion.

you and the president are speaking the same language and sending, signaling the very same thoughts right now. with regard to this. let me ask you about the moderate democratic senator, kyrsten sinema. she says she supports voting rights legislation but she will not budge on her intent to preserve the senate filibuster. she has once again defended her stance. she's take an lot of heat for it. let's take a listen to what she said. >> eliminating the 60-vote threshold on a party line with the thinnest of possible majorities, to pass these bills that i support will not guarantee that we prevent demagogues from winning office. eliminating the 60-vote threshold will simply guarantee that we lose a critical tool that we need to safeguard our democracy from threats in the years to come. >> that last part in particular, what are your thoughts on this?

what's your reaction to what she's saying? she's looking long-term. >> look, i think we have an immediate issue and a long-term issue that the way that the other party, the majority of the other party wants to win is by suppressing the vote and election subversion. so, you can't say we're trying to protect our democracy for the long-term by preserving the filibuster when the reality is that you need to actually protect voting rights if you're going to have a democracy at all. but also, i just want to point out that we already have a 51-vote threshold for the budget. that's why we twist ourselves into parliamentarian pretzels to get budget reconciliation bills through. if we already have it for the budget, are you really telling me we can't do it for this critical issue of making sure that every person across the united states has every united states citizen has the right to vote? that is what we need to do.

and so that is the frustration, i think, people see the lack of urgency and kind of some idealized version that, you know, somehow we're going to preserve our democracy by protecting the filibuster? that just doesn't make any sense when you look at the way the filibuster has been used to really stop progress on civil rights law. and i will just say that if we were to eliminate the filibuster on voting rights, it may be that we get a couple of republicans to vote with us, but that ten-vote threshold to even debate a bill, and we're going to bypass it this time through this procedural motion, is absolutely absurd. why does the country not have the right to have a debate and a vote on a critical issue like voting rights? that just makes no sense to me. >> i'm curious what happens then next week if, indeed, the voting rights legislation does not pass and i'm recalling the conversation i had in the last hour with your colleague, really appreciated her positive approach but she was really

citing john lewis and how he said this is an ongoing struggle. it's going to be an ongoing struggle for voting rights legislation and equality for all to be able to vote in this country. so, what happens? do you just go back to the drawing board? when you look at this task, how daunting is it to try to revive that while simultaneously trying to salvage the build back better package? >> well, look, all of these things are daunting. if they were easy, they would have been done but we are not here to do easy. we have been working to try to get the things done that are going to preserve our democracy and give americans opportunities. so, no, we can't give up. there's two options. you give up or you keep fighting, and i believe we have to keep up the pressure and recognize that we did move a number of senators from where they were at the beginning of last year to where they are today. we only now have a couple that are left on this question. so, we need the movement around

the country to continue to push. we are going to continue to push to have a sustained campaign that makes it really clear, overand over again, and pushes these last couple of senators to do what is right and stand on the right side of history. we can't give that up. at the same time, we cannot, you know, the -- the stakes for passing buildack better only get even higher if voting rights does not move through because again, people want to see that it makes a difference that people can deliver on their promises, that people that they delivered to the house, the senate, and the white house, and it is now going to be on the president to get senator manchin back to the table to do the framework that he committed to for build back better so we can actually deliver on some things and give people some reassurance, and alex, that's the thing i'm noticing being back home is people are

incredibly discouraged, and at the same time, i will just say to everybody watching, the things that are important to do in this country are hard to do and they require us to stay with that, you know, completely grounded unshakable belief that if we continue to do the work and we continue to organize and we continue to see leadership from president biden and from all of us in congress, we will get this done and there is no other option for us except to make sure that it happens. >> i think i've said this to you before, my friend, but keep on keeping on. we're proud of the work that you do and no doubt you're going to keep at it. so thank you so much for your time with us. i look forward to seeing you again. >> thank you, alex. when is a threat not a threat? new questions are emerging about violent messages uncovered in the january 6th investigation. t violent messages uncovered in violent messages uncovered in the january 6th investigation. wahoooo! (vo) you can be well-groomed.

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the leader of the far-right militia group, the oath keepers, facing a judge for the first time after being charged with

seditious conspiracy for the attack on the capitol. he is one of 11 people hit with those charges by the doj. the indictments come as the january 6th committee weighs taking a major step in their inquiry, whether to subpoena sitting members of congress. nbc's julie tsirkin is joining us from capitol hill. welcome on this saturday. so, with the doj taking oath keeper members to court and the committee weighing subpoenas, how are these battles playing out? >> reporter: alex, let's start with the big development coming from the justice department, who charged more than 700 people in connection with the capitol riot over the last year, but this week, bringing their most serious charge against the leader of the oath keepers, stewart rhodes, charged with seditious conspiracy. the justice department accusing him and at least ten others of trying to overthrow the government and more specifically trying to prevent congress from certifying the election and certifying president joe biden's victory. but look, this comes as clarity as well for the january 6th committee and for others who

were looking at the people who stormed the capitol on that day, on those mobs of people wearing tactical gear, fully armed, wondering how that could have happened organically. well now the justice department is saying they were coordinated, that stewart rhodes played a big hand in telling them where to go and what to do as they stormed the senate and house chambers. also a development in the january 6th committee, which is weighing those subpoenas against sitting members of congress, including republican leader kevin mccarthy who said he's not going to comply voluntarily with the committee's request. take a listen to what he said this week. >> there is nothing that i can provide the january 6th committee for legislation of their moving forward. there is nothing in that realm. it is pure politics of what they're playing. >> reporter: many are not surprised that mccarthy will not cooperate voluntarily because if democrats lose the house in this upcoming midterm election, he has a real chance to take on the gavel as speaker of the house,

and of course he needs to win over the trump allies in the house, and if he chooses to cooperate voluntarily, you and i can both imagine that statement that would come from former president trump criticizing the leader but also as the committee weighs to subpoena him, that could prove a big political and legal ramifications in the coming months if they choose to go down that road. of course, they're interested in the republican leader because he spoke to the former president on january 6th, in an expletive-filled phone call. a few weeks later, he put some blame on the former president for those rioters that stormed the capitol, walking that back a few short months later, so we'll see how this all plays out in the next coming weeks. >> oh, how quickly he's forgotten. okay, thank you so much, julie from capitol hill. well, a threat of newly released emails reveals in the days before the capitol riot, the department of homeland security saw a number of violent messages posted online but chose not to report them. according to a new report from politico, intelligence officials called the postings hyperbole and said they were protected

speech. joining me now is betsy woodruff swan, who co-wrote that article. betsy is also an msnbc contributor and a national correspondent for politico. welcome, betsy. always good to have you here. how many messages are we talking about that the dhs saw about potential violence at the capitol, and where did they find them? >> that's one of the big unanswered questions, frankly, about january 6th. these emails were obtained by an open records request that a government watchdog group, crew, filed a while back, so they came from dhs. as you can see, i've got the emails here. dhs redacted a significant portion of these documents. there's a lot of conveniently placed black rectangles that raise some very interesting questions. but what we know for sure, based on this really revelatory email, is that analysts within dhs's small intelligence shop in the 48 hours prior to january 6th saw communications that they thought were important. they also saw communications

that called for violent actions, but they assessed that these communications were hyperbole and therefore protected by the rights that americans enjoy, and they decided not to share them with their intelligence partners. now, what else do we see in this email thread that's just gobsmacking and that dhs has yet to explain is that at 2:15, on january 6th, during the attack, as violence was all over the place, capitol police reached out to dhs and asked for intelligence about what tactics those attackers might plan to use. over the course of an hour, these emails also show internal communications in dhs where a senior dhs supervisor, whose name is also redacted, directs people not to share intelligence with capitol police because that supervisor says it doesn't meet dhs's internal standards. so, from 2:15 to 3:15, there's this tension within the

department about whether or not to share what they know with capitol police. we have asked dhs whether or not that intelligence sharing actually happened. we have yet to get an answer back. but it just shows the extent to which the u.s. intelligence community totally dropped the ball. >> 100%. >> warning law enforcement and securing the capitol that day. >> well, and the fact that the name's redacted, you have no idea if that official still works with the dhs and in what capacity. point taken, and gobsmacked is a great word on this one. let me go through another couple of your reports from this week, starting with, january 6th panel subpoenas trump junior's advisors and trump's speech writer. why? what can they get from this group? >> the speech writer makes a lot of sense. this is a person, ross worthington, who helped trump write the speech that he delivered at the ellipse, the speech that came right before and during the very beginning of the attack on the capitol. the two trump junior advisors

they've subpoenaed, those two subpoenas actually generated more quick and noisy backlash than i've seen in the case of a lot of the subpoenas that were issued. caroline wren, a fund-raiser who helped raise the money to put on the ellipse rally almost immediately went on the record and said those two don junior advisors were not involved in facilitating the rally that preceded the attack on the capitol. now, the select committee has said they believe those two advisors might have knowledge or information regarding possibly the lead-up to the rally, the planning of the rally, and in one case, possible honorariums or payments who spoke at that ellipse rally. the committee obviously has a lot of interesting questions to ask but it will be interesting to keep an eye as well on, you know, what exactly these two advisor do or don't know. >> okay. i always spend a lot of time every week reading your articles, betsy. thank you for coming on and talking with us. they're right here. well, the way forward after president biden's voting rights

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tonight, try pure zzzs all night. unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. and longer. zzzquil pure zzzs all night. fall asleep. stay asleep. president biden is vowing to keep fighting for voting rights legislation despite a number of setbacks this week. he tweeted about it just a short time ago. let's go right to nbc's josh lederman in wilmington, delaware, so what's the latest on that and also the former president is making an appearance today, right? >> reporter: that's right. he will be appearing later tonight in phoenix, arizona, alex, but in the meantime, the white house is really left without a clear pathway forward on this legislation. those two bills you mentioned have now been rolled into one, sent over by the house for the senate to take a look at this

week, but as that vote faces near certain defeat, so many voting rights activists wondering whether president biden took up this issue too little, too late. president biden's voting rights push in peril. and barrelling toward failure in the senate. the president insisting he's not defeated, just disappointed. >> there's a lot of talk about disappointments and things we haven't gotten done. we're going to get a lot of them done, i might add. >> reporter: democrats will miss their self-imposed deadline of monday, mlk day, for a vote to pass protections with no republicans. >> the united states senate will for the first time this congress debate voting rights legislation beginning on tuesday. >> reporter: that vote, almost certain to fail, doomed by opposition to the rules change from democrats joe manchin and kyrsten sinema. >> there's been a lot of attention to a specific two people. >> reporter: vice president harris promising the fight isn't

over. >> we are not giving up on this. >> reporter: the white house can't lay out a pathway to victory. >> if we believed everything every pundit said out there, and listened to that, the president would not have run for office. >> reporter: the election year push testing mr. biden's powers of persuasion, denying democrats a key victory as former president trump returns to the campaign trail. his first rally of the year set for tonight in arizona. ground zero for trump's false election conspiracies. ♪ and i'm proud to be an american ♪ >> reporter: appearing tonight with candidates who all back his big lie, mr. trump shaping up as a king maker in the midterms. endorsing 93 republicans so far. the former president telling npr that republicans will do anything for his endorsement. >> whatever they have to do, they're going to do. >> reporter: but hanging up when he was pressed about election fraud claims. >> mr. president, if i may -- whoa, whoa, one more question. >> reporter: and alex, in the latest sign of president trump,

former president trump's firm grip on the republican party, congressman john of new york announcing he is not going to run again. he was one of just ten republicans who voted to impeach the president. now the third member of that group to say they will not face voters again, alex. >> indeed. okay, josh lederman, thank you so much for that. so, it's an idea that's making some doctors cringe. why deliberately getting infected with omicron is not a very smart thing to do. very smart thing to do ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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new today, the governor of new york says that the state is turning the corner on the omicron variant as it appears to be slowing down, so let's bring in dr. kavita patel, msnbc medical contributor, physician and fellow at the brookings institution, and a frequent guest. we're glad to have you here. this omicron wave appears to be peaking in some areas. you have "the new york times" reporting that new virus cases are slowing down in u.s. cities where it first hit. and then governor hochul says they're turning the corner in new york, so in your mind, is it indicator we're approaching the end of this current surge? >> yeah, alex, that's a good sign, especially parts of the northeast, midatlantic, even some hopeful signs in florida that they're peaking, but do not make a mistake. we still have much of the country that has yet to peak. we're hoping that peak could occur this month for the entire country and then cases rapidly declining is what we've seen in other countries. hopeful but too soon to get

complacent, and also as cases come down, there's still plenty of them to cause people illness and clog up hospitals and ers. >> oh, yeah, 100%. but you mentioned other countries and there are some experts who believe that this omicron wave may have peaked already in britain. the uk could, in fact, be among the first countries to emerge from the pandemic, so is there anything in your mind that really specifically indicates covid will transition to an endemic after omicron wanes? >> too soon to tell. i think that if you play this out and we do have this kind of high number of people that have been infected, as well as a population that's been vaccinated, not enough, but still sufficient enough that that could get us to enough people being immune, potentially, the reason i say too soon to tell is we don't know if people who were infected with omicron are able to get reinfected easily or not, and some of those questions, as well as any new strains could add some element to whether this is endemic or not.

>> which brings me to this question, this start of phenomenon being reported, these so-called omicron-getting parties where people want to catch the virus. how do you respond to the folks that are doing that? >> yeah, look, it's a natural temptation when you think about, alex, kind of, if you google the words, omicron mild, you'll just get flooded with results so if you hear that, like a cold, if you're vaccinated, it's not so bad, one would naturally think, hey, why don't i get it so it's out of the way now. here are three top reasons not to do it. you do not know if you will be the person who has a mild or severe form of infection, even with vaccinations, we know that people still can. number two, you do not want to be a chain in the transmission. i go to the a party, get omicron, i feel confident, but i visit my neighbor who's visiting her mother in a nursing home and you could see what could happen from that. and third, every time this virus reproduces in the body, it has a chance to mutate. that's how it mutates, when it's

reproducing, and we don't want this virus to get smarter and have more opportunity to outwit what we're naturally trying to do by getting vaccinated or trying to protect ourselves with masks, et cetera. so, those are my three reasons not to do it. >> three good reasons. bad idea, everybody. you heard it here. thank you so much, dr. kavita good to see you. meantime, his ex-girlfriend is talking and the feds are listening. what this could mean for the investigation into congressman matt gaetz. mean for the investigation into congressman investigation into congressman matt gaetz i'm a mother of four-- always busy. i was starting to feel a little foggy. just didn't feel like things were as sharp as i knew they once were. i heard about prevagen and then i started taking it about two years now. started noticing things a little sharper, a little clearer. i feel like it's kept me on my game. i'm able to remember things. i'd say give it a try. subway's eat fresh refresh healthier brain. better life.

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new developments in the sex trafficking investigation into florida republican congressman matt gaetz. his ex-girlfriend testified in front of a federal grand jury on wednesday. her appearance indicates the department of justice is still actively investigating whether gaetz paid a 17-year-old girl for sex. gaetz has not been charged with a crime and says he's never paid for sex and never had sex with a minor when he was an adult. joining me now, nbc news national political reporter mark

caputo, who broke this story. you've also reported that gaetz's former girlfriend has been allegedly talking to prosecutors for months about some sort of an immunity deal. so talk about the significance of her appearance in front of the grand jury this week. >> the significance, we would really know more if we knew what she should but from what we gather, she has information prosecutors want, and that could place matt gaetz kind of at the scene of the alleged crime. she could testify. we don't know, again, that she had been told by gaetz at the time that gaetz had had sex with a 17-year-old back in 2017. she also was on this bahamas trip with a number of other people. the federal government investigators are scrutinizing that trip to see if the people along -- on it, including matt gaetz, violated the mann act, which prohibits taking people across state lines to engage in

prostitution. when this broke, the ex-girlfriend was talking to another woman who was talking to prosecutors that felt woman may have recorded the call and may have patched in matt gaetz at the time and prosecutors suspect he tried to illicit or entice or suborn obstruction of justice and his ex-girlfriend may have participated in that. that was the basis of her getting an immunity deal. don't charge me for this and i'll tell you the things you want to know. exactly what she told them is key but what's important to note here is that she's an important bridge that unlocks the case or unstalls it. it was stuck in neutral. now the case is clearly going forward. can't promise he's going to be indicted but the chances are higher. >> look, he says it's a witch hunt, right? that's what gaetz has said time and time again, to use the phrase that's been coined by donald trump. have you seen, marc, any inklings of political distortions in what you know of the investigation?

>> that's a good question. i'll answer it a little differently, which is this. sex trafficking a minor, the underlying big serious charge that everyone's talking about, that's usually not applied in cases like this. this might be a more novel type of prosecution. so, in that regard, gaetz might argue -- now you can't argue in court that you are being selectively prosecuted but if gaetz does take the stand if he gets indicted, he may find a way to do that. he's going to argue, like, look, this is not a typical sex traffic of a minor case. again, he says that he didn't do it but if he did, he had sexual relations with a woman who was on a sugar daddy website and was already allegedly selling herself to men. >> interesting okay, so, marc caputo, more to come. thank you so much for your time. for all of you for watching, that's a wrap for me on this edition of "alex witt reports." my friend, yasmin vossoughian,

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♪♪ good afternoon, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian. there is a lot going on right now. we are watching dangerous weather, a tsunami bringing major waves to tonga, and the impact being felt here on the west coast of the united states.